Major events in history have always influenced writers, but it very rare for a writer to influence history. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of these rare writers. He put into words a new air, a new way of thinking, which began to drift into American minds since the colonial days. His words condensed ...

Emerson's "transcendentalism" is essentially a romantic individualism, a philosophy of life for a new people who had overthrown their colonial governors and set about conquering a new continent by their own lights. Though Emerson is not a technical philosopher, the tendency of his thought is towar...

Transcendentalism and Its Effects on American Literature Spawned as a late and local manifestation of the Renaissance, Transcendentalism swept through New England in the early 1800's (Trent 326). The term "transcendentalism" was first used by Kant, a German philosopher. It refers to the id...

"America was opened after the feudal mischief was spent, and so the people made a good start." Was Ralph Waldo Emerson correct in that assertion? Why or why not? § How were a person's rights and responsibilities determined in the feudal era? How are a person's...